I spent all last week in DC doing research at the Library of congress and hanging out with my friend Julia (littlepixiechic), who was kind enough to let me crash on her couch. The main results of the trip were:

(1) I got a lot of research done and didn't even make a dent in the stuff they have so I will definitely be going back, probably multiple times.

(2) I am officially addicted to Doctor Who. I've always been interested in it and wanted to watch it but never figured out how. Julia has Netflix and informed me they're available for instant viewing so we watched Doctor Who in the evenings and got through a series and a half, so all of the Ninth and started on the Tenth. Of course, I was very upset that I would return to Williamsburg and not be able to continue watching as I don't have a Netflix account but I mentioned this my mother and she informed me she has an account and if all I want is the instant viewing stuff without having any disks sent to me I should just log onto her account. AWESOME!

I got home yesterday afternoon and I leave tomorrow morning for a week in NYC for a workshop on reading 17th-century Dutch, about which I am rather excited because I am a dork. I have a dilemma about this, though. Neil Gaiman will be in NYC doing a reading from the new Stories anthology he edited. The reading is Tuesday night at 7:00 at the same college where I'll be for my workshop. The auditorium holds 600 people with no tickets, first-come-first served. My workshops go until 4:00. If I were to head straight over and get in line at 4:00, would I manage to be int he first 600 or would that already be too late? I'd be willing to wait for three hours and I could always leave and do something else if I get there and the line is already too long. The problem is that there is a reception for the workshop thing on Tuesday evening from 4:30 to 6:30. I feel like I should go to that, but I'd much rather go see Neil Gaiman. I could always go check out the Gaiman line and go to the workshop if it seems too long so I wouldn't be able to get in. Only problem with that is I'm supposed to RSVP for the reception so last minute decisions are trickier. I'm not sure what to do.

Comments:

I am sure that the people holding the reception would understand if you were able to get into the reading, since it is something that you never be able to do otherwise. Maybe you could tell them that you are unsure whether you will be able to make the reception so you need to put your RSVP in as a "maybe attending" instead of an "attending" or "not attending"?